I Always Wanted To Play The Piano

When asked 'if you could choose to play a musical instrument', many people would reply "I wish I could play the piano." A very common question is 'how to play the piano'? Imagine the pleasure you would get from playing the piano and seeing the happiness it creates for others. Playing your first piano piece, just imagine how that would feel, I'm sure you can see the smiling faces of your listeners and hear their applause as you read on.

image courtesy newpiano.xyz

Because getting the basics right can be a bit of a chore for young kids (scales and arpeggios) Mum used to place 6 M&Ms on one end of the electronic keyboard (the bass end) and each time I did an exercise (say the scale of E major) one of them was placed at the other end of the keyboard. Once 6 repetitions had been complete then I got the the 6 M&Ms!

How I never ended up as the toothless pianist I'll never know!.

I always remember mum saying some interesting things about playing the piano. The first was that whilst the player might very conscious of mistakes such as missed fingering, the odd wrong note, bad phrasing etc, It is surprising that general listeners tend not to notice. So if you are playing in public just get on and play and don't make a thing about the mistakes you know about. This of course doesn't apply to examiners and knowledgeable listeners who are very exact and precise.

The other thing she used to say was that often in a social setting people sit and 'listen' to a piano player whereas they will join in and sing along with a guitarist. That is of course until they have imbibed enough Dutch courage to give it a go! I think the point she was making was that playing the piano is regarded as a performance rather than a shin-dig.

One thing that used to drive her up the wall was 'Chopsticks'.The old 'this is what I can play even though I can't play anything else' Surprising really because she wasn't a music snob, although Fur Elise was another tune she had in her sights when gunning for average piano players!

A big question too is whether playing the piano is a natural talent or simply down to hard work and practice. You'll find links here that explore this issue. At the end of the day we cannot ignore the fact that some players are better than others. So we have to consider the art and technicality of playing too. Getting a grip on what musicality actually is and how we know it when we've got it is another matter entirely.

Playing without reading music

Many people know of someone who can play the piano by ear. They just seem to have a 'knack' for playing a tune without music, often after hearing the tune just once. For the people who can't do this it seems like magic, and in some ways it is.

One thing to keep in mind is the piano, like other instruments where chords can be played (guitar, harp, banjo) can be played to pick out the melody (main tune) and/ or accompany a singer or instruments by playing chord shapes. For the piano player, at its most basic level the right hand (top stave / treble) is used to play the melody and the left (bottom stave/ bass) is used as the accompaniment. As you might expect this is a very broad general rule of thumb and most music develops this basic principle.

What this means is that to play by ear you have three choices. First just pick out the melody with one hand (usually the right hand) This is fine but can seem quite simplistic. You can make the melody richer by playing thirds (at its simplest any two notes with a gap of one note between them). Second you can use the piano like you would use a guitar to strum accompanying chords. This means you need to have an idea of basic chord shapes, for the 'key' you are playing in. Chords belong to families that sound right together, so C, E , and G work well together. You can play with just one hand or use your left hand to play the equivalent of your key note (C,E,G in this example) an octave (eight notes) below to add a bit of bass. Third you can try both, right hand play a one note tune and the left hand following along with the relevant chords.

Playing by ear can be learned and for some people it comes more naturally than others. I believe anyone can do it. I have friend who is a Trucker who never played the piano before and I taught him to play (chords) to his favourite song in an hour. You should have seen the smile on his face!